AS The X Factor returns to our screens for its 10th anniversary year, new Xtra host Matt Richardson revealed how he plans to fill Olly Murs’s shoes and why he spent his first day filming in Glasgow in a pair of Speedos.

THE X Factor is back tonight but no one had a harder audition than new Xtra Factor presenter Matt Richardson.

The 22-year-old stand-up comedian was put through the wringer for his first day on the job, which was also the first round of judge’s auditions, starting in Glasgow.

Not only was he not allowed to eat with the judges – Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger, Louis Walsh, returning original judge Sharon Osbourne, presenter Dermot O’Leary and his Xtra Factor co-host Caroline Flack – Matt also had to strip down to Speedos for a boat ride down the Clyde.

He laughed: “Even the crew have worked on the show for years so I felt like the new boy who had arrived at school six weeks late and everyone had already made friends.

“The judges, Dermot and Caroline were invited to this dinner the night before the auditions but I wasn’t allowed to go because they wanted me to meet them for the first time on screen.

“So I had a meal with one of the producers, while they had dinner in the restaurant at the hotel, with Caroline texting me pictures of them all having a really fun time.

“The next day, meeting them all was really intimidating. It was Sharon’s first day back on the panel too but she was asking me these really intimate questions – if I had a girlfriend and how many people I’d been out with. I was just stuttering, ‘I don’t really know, sorry’.

“I think she was enjoying watching me flounder for an answer.”

Matt and Caroline

As if that wasn’t enough, the next day, he and Caroline went round Glasgow to film some footage for ITV2’s Xtra Factor and went Doon the Watter on a boat.

Matt admitted: “I went down the Clyde in just Speedos. It was chilly. It was for a gag because I’ve got really weedy legs.”

Matt certainly had a baptism of fire on his first day on the job and he’s hoping fans of the show will soon forget Olly Murs – whose role he’s taken over.

He said: “I’m fully aware that some people won’t watch it because Olly’s not on it.

“But frankly, if that’s the reason they were watching in the first place then I’m not that worried and I’m not upset. I want people who love The X Factor to watch it. It’s about The X Factor more than it ever has been.”

That’s because it’s the 10th anniversary of the show and it’s hoped this will be the biggest and best year with an era-defining winner.

As well as Glasgow, there were auditions in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and London. During the auditions they found the oldest ever contestant entering at 94.

For the first time ever, hopefuls will have to audition twice. The audition room returns and if they get through that, then they will have another audition in front of a 4000-strong audience at Wembley Arena before they get a chance to go through to boot camp and be one of the final 24 at the Judges’ Houses.

We know Jade Richards – who got as far as Kelly Rowland’s Judge’s House – is back for the third time but will we get our second winner since Leon Jackson in 2007?

Of course, Matt isn’t saying.

He said: “There’s good talent in Glasgow. Scotland is an underdog and loves being an underdog and, of course, everyone loves an underdog.”

It seems the hopefuls certainly needed a half-time pep talk, with Gary berating the contestants, saying they were “like people waiting at bus stops” and “if anyone is here who isn’t serious – go home”.

Oops.

Matt was chosen by Simon Cowell after someone at his company, Syco, saw him on a late-night show and got him in for an audition.

Matt and Caroline did a screen test.

Matt laughed: “It wasn’t the presenting stuff that Simon liked.

“They’d left the camera rolling in between us filming and he liked the way we were off camera.”

Since getting the job, Matt has gone out a few times with Nicole and had drinks with Gary, listening to all his Take That stories.

Matt said: “For me, it feels like they’ve given the job to a man off the street because hearing all of their showbiz stories is really exciting. Gary gave me some advice and told me to enjoy it.

“He said, ‘Sometimes with jobs like this, you get too involved in doing it – stop, sit back and realise how lucky we all are’.”

And Louis?

Matt grinned: “Louis constantly teases me that I’m not Olly Murs and every time we arrived in a new city he’d say, ‘They’ve kept you on for another day – you must be doing better than I think then’.”

Matt passed his audition in Glasgow, so let’s hope some Scots hopefuls did the same.

* The X Factor starts tonight on STV at 8pm. Catch Matt during his tour at the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, on October 2. For tickets and information, go to www.mattrichardsoncomedy.co.uk